A group of non-teaching personnel on Thursday called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to stop some officials from allegedly blocking the ratification of the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA), which is the legal basis for granting CNA incentives to non-teaching staff.

Department of Education-National Employees' Union (DepEd-NEU) national president Atty. Domingo Alidon explained the entire CNA process, from the signing by the union and management, notarization, bringing it to the members for ratification, up to the submission to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to be given a ratification number.

"It [CNA] is not enough to be signed by the DepEd management and the union. If it is signed by the union and the management, it is notarized. If it is notarized, it will be brought down for ratification," Alidon said in an interview on the sidelines of the Department of Education-National Employees' Union's (DepEd-NEU) 17th National Congress held at Crown Legacy Hotel in Baguio City.

"Once it is not ratified, it will be lost even if there is a settlement. A 50 percent plus 1 vote is needed—if there are 100 personnel, 51 must sign," he added.

According to the union, many non-teaching personnel cannot participate in the signature campaign because the superintendents are allegedly waiting for a division memorandum, even though such a restriction is not necessary.

"They will give a memorandum which is ordered by the non-teaching personnel to be ratified. People will not move without the issue of the division memorandum," Alidon said.

"We allow people to sign and move to their level to make a signature campaign. They will be stolen if there is no division memorandum. We are too bureaucratic," he added.

He further said that most of the regional directors do not know the ratification process, so it is not clear why some schools division superintendents seem to be interfering.

"Our appeal is that once there is a CNA and the signatures are near, they [schools division superintendents] should not stop people from ratifying the Collective Negotiation Agreement," Alidon said.

"Actually, the original directors do not know much about the ratification process. I have never heard of a superintendent who is in charge of the ratification process," the union president added.

Alidon also explained that the amount of the CNA incentive depends on an agency's savings.

Although there is a legal ceiling of P30,000, DepEd was able to provide P10,000 in CNA incentives last year, which the union said was the first time in the agency's history.

"It depends on the savings every year. If there are more savings, it will be bigger. But under the law, it is allowed to grant CNA incentives at least more than P30,000. Now, it depends on the savings of the agency," Alidon said.

"We thank Secretary Sonny Angara for the first time in the history of DepEd. Because of his leadership, he promised to increase the CNA incentives up to P10,000 last year. Now, our call is to increase the CNA incentives to at least P15,000," the union president added.

Alidon also confirmed that non-teaching personnel receive benefits even if they are not union members, but an agency fee must be deducted as mandated by Executive Order 180.

He further explained that some offices below do not remit savings to the central office, which is why the funds for the CNA incentives were limited.

If the funds are not obligated before 31 December, they will automatically revert to the National Treasury.

Of the total 65,000 non-teaching personnel in the country, 58,900 are currently members of the union.

According to Alidon, they have not yet started a new membership campaign because participation is voluntary.

Alidon also pointed out that this year's national congress is the largest because they were unable to hold cluster assemblies, so the members poured their attendance in this event.

"Our appeal is simple: if there is already a Collective Negotiation Agreement that only needs a signature, do not block it. Let the people ratify it," Alidon said.

He added that the CNA ensures that non-teaching personnel receive the incentive they are entitled to, whether they are a member of the union or not.